The Big Easy Tough Place To Win Image Game

Y2KICKOFF - THE BOWLS

January 1, 2000|By David Whitley, Sentinel Columnist

NEW ORLEANS - It's the first day of the rest of your millennium, Bobby Bowden. Do you know where your left tackle is?

Hopefully all the Seminoles were tucked in safely before midnight, and they plan to mind their manners through Tuesday's Sugar Bowl. The last thing Florida State needs right now is a Y2K behavioral glitch.

That's because there's more in play here than a national championship. A major image game is whirling like one of the nearby roulette wheels. And FSU cannot afford to lose this spin.

``Have you read the paper about us?'' Bowden said upon landing at the airport the other day.

He was answering a loaded question - did FSU arrive a day later than Virginia Tech in order to minimize the temptation time in New Orleans?

As usual, Bowden was being good-natured with a question that would have turned some coaches to stone. Beneath the smile, however, he knows the Seminoles are facing two serious fights.

They really need to win, and they must do it right.

For all its football splendor, FSU enters the new millennium burdened by past sins. In the early years of the dynasty, fate and wide-rights made Bowden a sympathetic figure. Three years ago, FSU was shackled unfairly with a rematch against fire-breathing Florida. Last year, it had to play with a backup quarterback nicknamed Rooster who ran around like his head was cut off.

And now comes New Orleans.

Virginia Tech may be good, but FSU is primed and healthy, and has no excuses. If the Seminoles lose to the upstarts from Hokie-land, they forever would be branded the Big Engine That Couldn't.

It's not fair measuring success in trophies, but the big stage is where reputations are made. Which brings us to the other game in town.

Besides near-misses, what do people think of when they hear FSU?

Free Shoes U.

Dillardgate.

Pregame brawls.

Winning the wrong way.

Seminoles fans will cry that it's not fair, and it's not. But opinions are based on what people hear and read. It seems all they've heard and read lately from FSU is trouble. Six brushes with the law in the past year is not good for the image.

And now comes New Orleans.

The big stage brings the big scrutiny, especially in the Big Easy. You can't swing a dead crawfish around here without hitting a dozen journalists eager for something new to report.

Bowden's never been one to worry over things he can't control, but it's not hard to imagine him gazing out on the French Quarter from his hotel suite and wondering ...

Who's that big guy being given a Breathalyzer? Please tell me Warrick paid for that Polo shirt. Gosh, why's the camera crew from 60 Minutes following Mario Edwards around?

Hoping to minimize the risks, FSU hired six security guards to patrol its hotel floors, trying to keep agents out. The casinos have been declared off-limits. Curfews have been moved up from past years.

There was a players-only meeting where everybody agreed an image cleanup is in order. They know FSU is one incident from another Loser's Ball.

FSU of the '90s, meet Oklahoma of the '70s and UNLV of the '80s. Coach Tarkanian, show Coach Bowden how to chew on a towel.

A cop came and discussed the pitfalls of New Orleans, where boys will be boys and girls will be girls. And sometimes, boys will be girls. The worst thing that could happen to FSU isn't a loss. It's an arrest that gets turned into an international incident.

Win a game, lose more of its soul.

The police have provided the warning speech for years. One officer told the Richmond Times-Dispatch the worst-behaved team in recent Sugar Bowl history visited three years ago.

``Arrogant, foul-mouthed ... they thought none of the rules applied to them,'' he said.

That team, which shall remain nameless, beat FSU 52-20 to win the national championship.

Winning the crown this year won't be enough for the Seminoles. They also must show they won't taint it.